Rent Squabble In Easton Goes To Court Today

Lawyers for tenants and owners of the Kennedy Gardens apartment complex in Easton will ask a federal judge today to rule on a class action suit protesting two rent increases imposed in 1984.

Attorney Judy Jones, representing the tenants; Gary Asteak, counsel for Theodore and Bonnie Kroemmelbein of Frenchtown, N.J., who own the buildings, and U.S. Attorney Barbara Gerolamo, for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, will present legal arguments before U.S. Judge Edward Cahn in Allentown.

Each side is seeking a summary judgment in the suit, started last August by Kennedy Gardens tenants who claimed $15 and $25 increases in January and October 1984 came "without proper notice."

The suit asks the court to void the higher rents and direct the Kroemmelbeins to give current tenants credit toward their present rents and cash payments to former tenants. The Kroemmelbeins have owned the three buildings on Canal Street since 1977.

Meanwhile, Ross Marcus of the Easton Area Neighborhood Center reported yesterday that Easton code enforcement officers inspected 65 of the 75 units last October and listed 20 pages of violations.

The city gave the Kroemmelbeins 30 days to make improvements, according to a letter which accompanied the list.

Angelo Sortino of the codes office said the Kroemmelbeins since have "done a lot of work on the interiors - painting, loose tiles, caulking and so forth."

"We are trying to work with them, and most of the interior work has been done," Sortino said.